1
as in shrill
marked by or producing a harsh combination of sounds
discordant tones coming from the poorly tuned instrument
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in noisy
making loud, confused, and usually unharmonious sounds
the discordant cries of gulls fighting over the fishing boat's castoffs
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in aggressive
feeling or displaying eagerness to fight
a troubled, discordant family that would benefit from professional counseling
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4
as in conflicting
not being in agreement or harmony
his views on the proper role of diet in maintaining good health are certainly discordant with most contemporary opinions on the subject
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of discordant
Loesser’s score is ambitious and diverse, with a discordant duet by Joe and Rosabella, lively Neapolitan-style songs by the Italian vineyeard workers, a beautifully harmonized barbershop quartet and some classic Broadway belter songs.
—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 June 2026
This is a talented ensemble unable to show off those talents because they’re all reduced to instruments that play only two discordant notes.
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Charles Lewis Iii,
Mercury News,
29 May 2026
The most discordant notes were sounded by Larson’s two speakers.
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Kevin Rennie,
Hartford Courant,
23 May 2026
The discordant, Bernard Herrmann-esque bursts of María Portugal’s rich score ratchet up the suspense and foreboding.
—
Sheri Linden,
HollywoodReporter,
14 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for discordant
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 June 2026
This is a talented ensemble unable to show off those talents because they’re all reduced to instruments that play only two discordant notes.
—
Charles Lewis Iii,
Mercury News,
29 May 2026
The most discordant notes were sounded by Larson’s two speakers.
—
Kevin Rennie,
Hartford Courant,
23 May 2026
The discordant, Bernard Herrmann-esque bursts of María Portugal’s rich score ratchet up the suspense and foreboding.
—
Sheri Linden,
HollywoodReporter,
14 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for discordant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for discordant
Adjective
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On shrill winter nights, Moscow’s power is conspicuous, its Orthodox cathedrals and Stalinist high-rises illuminated, though the view falls dim in the autumn and spring, shrouded in sheets of greige.
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The chaos is still an acceptable price to pay for Birney’s expertly offputting performance, a shrill mania that gets increasingly comic over time.
Adjective
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Europe has long resisted air conditioning as noisy, an eyesore on architectural facades and unnecessary, as brutal summer heat has been relatively short-lived.
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The advertisement paints an ominous portrait, featuring a man in dark lighting standing in front of images of noisy computer servers.
Adjective
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The goal is gentle smoke and indirect heat rather than aggressive flames.
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Right now, the multi-trillion-dollar global apparel industry is undergoing an aggressive technological shift, adopting artificial intelligence as a production standard rather than an experimental pilot.
Adjective
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Pulling off all the ambiguity and conflicting emotions can’t have been easy.
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Trump also frequently offered conflicting statements about the war itself.
Adjective
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At the track’s apex Korten explodes in and out of dissonant broken chords against Mark Shim’s angular saxophone lines, an unexpected development that sneaks up on you thanks to Sorey’s sticky, slowly evolving drumming.
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This is reminding me of watching Slint play a reunion show in 2014 under the I-65 highway at a festival in Louisville, and how simultaneously awesome and cognitively dissonant that experience was.
Adjective
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Yet Piker himself has followed the DSA’s militant line, repeatedly praising authoritarian regimes such as China’s, Cuba’s, and Russia’s, as well as terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
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There are also concerns that fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon could escalate once more and derail future talks.
Adjective
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Avoid abrupt temperature changes, frequent relocation, and inconsistent watering.
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Broadcasters and platforms needed reliable ways to deliver streams to millions of viewers across inconsistent internet connections.
Adjective
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We are made loving, good, and pure – entirely free from any inharmonious tendency.
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Setting Discordant Personal Goals A 2023 study published in Current Psychology finds that partners’ inharmonious goals can have detrimental effects on relationships.
Cite this Entry
“Discordant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/discordant. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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